spicy shredded fusion chicken balls

spicy chickenball fusion style

This recipe has its roots in Bali, Indonesian islands of gods as well as in Germany. The German part roots from my favorite meatballs in a white roux, also called meatballs Königsberg style (Königsberger Klopse). I only discovered the Indonesian part of this recipe when I first visited Bali. There, next to a the most beautiful island in the world, I was able to discover new spices and unknown but inspiring tastes and smells. The spiciness of the food first gave my European pallet as well my European stomach a great challenge to overcome at first, but in the end, when I got used to it, I think it was well worth it. The spiciness is something that was completely new to me but that I would not miss it any more.
I surprise myself more and more often putting chili paddies into my European recipes. Anyhow there was this dish, it was a fried shredded chicken recipe where the shredded chicken had a coating / marinade with all kinds of different roots, which the locals like to use for their cooking (there was ginger and galangal, I am sure there was some turmeric but I guess there were many others as well), lots of chili paddies that gave the dish a healthy red color and some kind of crust, I guess it must have been a breadcrumb or flour based coating.
Anyway, the dish was so rich in flavors so it inspired me to recreate the dish with a twist. As I try to avoid frying as cooking method (I don’t like to use too much oil as I am never can sure were the oil is actually coming from – I will write more about this in another blog post about food scandals in China, later) I tried to make this recipe fried meatball style but it was too dry. Then, after I successfully tried to make it “Königsberger” style and added some of the European flavors (such as capers…) and rounded everything off with a rich, silky textured roux that binds all the flavors together and gives it a creamy wetness, I had a real winner on hand. This dish came out full of flavors, I can find most of the ingredients easily in China but be warned, it’s not something for the fainted hearted and quite spicy for some. If you are European and you would like to try this recipe, I suggest you half the chili content of this recipe.


3 parts recipe:

The soup and the chicken:

• ½ onion
• 1 carrot
• 1 strung of celery
• 1 leak
• 2 big chicken breasts

Heat up ¾ liter of water, put all the ingredients and let it cook on medium heat for 45 minutes

The broth and the roux

• Table spoon capers
• 1 - 2 table spoon of vinegar (up to your pallet)
• salt and pepper to season off
• 1 tea spoon of paprika powder
• 3 small hot red chili

Now you filter the veggies from the broth, squeeze out all veggies to get the juices, put the clear broth back on medium heat, all the above ingredients and let everything cook on medium heat so the tastes can blend nicely in and you have a tasteful roux later

1. The chicken balls

Grated zest of one lemon, the juice of half a lemon, 2 cloves of garlic, ½ big diced onion, 1 table spoon of paprika powder, salt and knorr fondor base to season, 1 tea spoon of Cumming powder,  1 tea spoon of dried coriander, one thumbnail sized piece of turmeric and ginger, chopped fine, 4 red small hot chili chopped, 2 cups of bread crumbs, 1 egg

Now you take the tender cooked chicken breasts and start to shred them. After you shredded to chicken to small pieces, fry the onions, garlic, turmeric, ginger and chili in a pan, fry them fast and hot. The onions can turn transparent colored, which is exactly when you take the pan off the heat. Now you add all of the above mentioned ingredients together in a bowl and mix them well. Best is if you have a good hour where you can let everything marinade through, but that is not necessary if you are in a hurry and very hungry. Now you form nice sized chicken balls out of the mix, after rolling them, press them well together so they stick together and won’t fall apart in the broth. Now you place the chicken balls in the hot broth and cook everything together for 15 - 20 minutes on medium heat, so the chicken balls will be cooked well through. Now you can filter out the broth and start making a roux, using this rich flavored broth. Don’t make the roux to watery, stop adding broth when the roux is nice, creamy, rich and silky.